Cuesta Women's Volleyball successfully battled through the program's 50th season and is bidding for its first playoff berth since 2021.  The seeding meeting is set for this Tuesday, and the first playoff matches are scheduled for this Saturday.  The Cougars finished the season with a 14-12 overall record and in 5th place in the Western State Conference, where they posted a mark of 5-7.  The Cougars, led by WSC Coach of the Year Whitney Meyer, hovered around the .500 mark most of the season, before finishing strong with four wins over their last five matches, including a victory over #10 LA Mission.  Last Saturday, the Cougars closed out the regular season at Bakersfield, with a four-set win (25-15, 26-24, 21-25, 25-12) over the host Renegades.  The Cougars last playoff berth came in 2021 as the WSC's 4th playoff team but following that season the Cougars have run-off four straight 5th place finishes in the increasingly dominant WSC-North Division.  The Cuesta Faithful are hopeful that the Cougars will get a chance to extend their campaign into the post-season. 

 

This season is the 50th anniversary of the first of the Cougars' four 3C2A State Volleyball Championships.  In his first season, Founding Coach Ken Preston laid the foundation of one of the Cuesta's most successful programs, when he led Cuesta's Spikers to a Coast Conference title and NorCal Regional DII Championship in 1976.  In his encore, Preston added a Team Bronze in the 1977 State Division II playoffs.  The Cougars also won the Division II State Title, under then Coach Paul Gabriel, in 1979, before the 3C2A dissolved the two-division system, in favor of one statewide playoff.  In the new playoff system, the Cougars became the state's most dominant team, when they won back-to-back State Titles in 1985 and 1986, under Hall of Fame Coach Hugh Gerhardt.  The Cougars are currently bidding for their 28th playoff berth over the past half-century.